Gramsci's Civil Society and the Implicit Dimension of Politics. A case Study


Abstract


Civil society actors' reduced ability to take political action and adopt critical positions towards public institutions is often ascribed to the "marketisation" of the local welfare systems in which non-profit and third-sector organizations operate. This reading of the depoliticisation of civil society is correct, but it has a number of shortcomings, including the assumption that civil society actors are passive agents that are overwhelmed by the depoliticisation mechanisms to which they are subjected. Instead, this paper ex-plores how civic organizations – albeit unintentionally – engender depoliticisation dynamics that shrink their critical strength. To do so, it draws on Gramscian arguments regarding civil society and politics and uses them to illuminate a case study of a local governance strategy (V'Arco Villoresi Green System), involv-ing both experts and civic groups. The main finding of the research is that civil society sustains what Gram-sci called "economism", i.e. a radical rejection of politics, which may be enacted by civil society both when non-critically adhering to governance arenas and when contesting them. The analysis undertaken contrib-utes to our understanding of the depoliticisation of civil society, shedding light, on the one hand, on how this process is not solely due to factors external to civil society and, on the other hand, on what the author calls the implicit dimension of politics.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v12i2p487

Keywords: Civil Society; Depoliticization; Governance; Gramsci; Participation

References


Aa. Vv. (2012), V’Arco Villoresi. Sistema Verde Integrato Villoresi, Piano di Azione Pro-muovere la sostenibilità a livello locale. Realizzare la connessione ecologica, docu-mento non pubblicato.

Aa. Vv(a). (2015), V’Arco Villoresi. Sistema Verde Integrato Villoresi, Masterplan di progetto.

Aa. Vv(b). (2015), “Relazione di fine progetto. Progetto V’Arco Villoresi, documento di sintesi dello studio di fattibilità”, documento non pubblicato.

Alexander J. (2006), The Civil Sphere, New York: Oxford University Press.

Berger M. (2009) “Quelques contraintes a la referentialitè des voix profanes dans un dispositif d’urbanisme participatif”, in Cantelli, F. Escoda, M. Stavo Debauge, J. and Pattaroni, L. Sensibilitè pragmatiques. Enqueter sul l'action publique. Peter Lang, Bruxelles.

Berger M. (2015) "The Politics of Copresence. An Ecological Approach to Resistance in Top-Dow Participation", European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 2 (1): 1-22.

Biorcio R., Vitale T. (2016), Italia Civile. Associazionismo, partecipazione e politica, Ro-ma: Carocci Editore.

Bobbio N. (1990), Saggi su Gramsci, Milano: Feltrinelli.

Boltanski L., Esquerre I. (2017[2014]), Verso l’estremo. Estensione del dominio della destra, Milano: Mimesis.

Blumer H. (1954) "What is Wrong with Social Theory" American Sociological Review 18 (1954): 3-10.

Brighenti A. M. (2016) “Antonio Gramsci’s Theory of the Civil Society”, in Stephan Moebius, Frithjof Nungesser & Katharina Scherke (Eds), Handbuch Kultursoziologie. Band 1: Begriffe, Kontexte, Perspektiven, Autor_innen. Wiesbaden: Springer DE.

Busso S. e Gargiulo E. (2017) “Una società armoniosa? ll posto del conflitto nelle prati-che e nel discorso sul Terzo Settore”, Cartografie Sociali 2(3): 137-155.

Cefai D. and Lichterman P. (2006) “The Idea of Political Culture,” pp: 392-414 in Goodin R., Tilly C., eds., Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Studies, Oxford University Press, New York.

Cefai D. (2007), Pourquoi se mobiliz-t-on? Le theories de l’action collective, Paris: La Découverte.

Citroni S. (2018) “Azione civica e nuove forme di partecipazione a Milano”, Polis 32(3): 315-340.

Citroni S. (2017) “The contradictions of Creative Activism. Situated meanings and eve-ryday practices in a Milan Case-Study”, City, Culture & Society 8(1): 43-50.

Cohen J.and Arato A. (1992) Civil Society and Political Theory, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Cooke B., Kothari U. (2001) Participation: the New Tyranny?, Zed Books, London

Crouch C. (2006), Postdemocracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crubaugh B. (2018) “Not All Civic Action Is Equal: Two Forms of Civic Associations and Their Disparate Effects on Poverty and Poverty Segregation”, Sociological Perspec-tives, Online first.

D’Albergo E., Moini G. (2017) ”Depoliticizing Public Action by Politicizing Issues, Prac-tices and Actors. The Role of Resilience Thinking in a Program of the Cariplo Foundation”, Partecipazione e Conflitto 10(2): 381- 420.

De Nardis F. (2017) “De-Politicization in the Neoliberal Era”, Partecipazione e Conflitto 10(2): 340-356.

Duany A., Plater-Zyberk E. and Speck J. (2000) Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press.

Dunning C. (2018) “Outsourcing Government: Boston and the rise of Public-Private Partnerships”, Enterprise and Society 19(4): 803-815.

Eliasoph N. (1996) “Making a Fragile Public: A Talk-Centered Study of Citizenship and Power”, Sociological Theory 14(3): 262-289.

Eliasoph N. (2013), The Poltics of Volunteering, New York: Polity Press.

Eliasoph N., Lichterman P. (2003) “Culture in Interaction”, American Journal of Sociolo-gy, 108(4): 735-794.

Eliasoph N. and Lichterman P. (2014), “Civic Action”, American Journal of Sociology 120(3): 798-863.

Esposito R. (1987), Categorie dell’impolitico, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Gayet-Viaud C. (2009) “Civility and Democracy”, European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philophy 7(1): 1 -17.

Goffman E. (2008[1963]), Behavior in Public Places. Notes on the social organization of gatherings, London: Simon & Schuster.

Goodin R., Tilly C., eds., (2008), Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Studies, New York : Oxford University Press.

Gramsci A. (1965[1926–37]) Lettere dal carcere (ed. Sergio Caprioglio and Elsa Fubini), Einaudi, Torino.

Gramsci A. (1975[1929–35]) Quaderni del carcere (4 Vols, ed. Valentino Gerratana), Einaudi, Torino.

Gramsci A. (1997) Pensare la democrazia. Antologia dai ‘Quaderni del carcere’ a cura di Marcello Montanari, Einaudi, Torino.

Gramsci A. (2000) The Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935, NYU Press.

Fonovic K., Cappadozzi T. edit. (2016) Volontari e attività volontarie in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna.

Foucault M. (2004[1972], L’ordine del discorso, Torino: Einaudi.

Iacovino R. (2016),”Restructuring Public Action in Rome. Neoliberalization and the Re-lationships between Public and Private Actors”, Partecipazione e Conflitto, 9(2): 387-413.

Ion J. (1997) La fin des militants?, Editions de l’Atelier, Paris.

Jessop B. (2013) “Repolticising depoliticisation: theoretial prelimaries on some re-sponses to the American Fiscal and Eurozone debt crisi”, Policy & Politics 42(2): 1-18.

Lascoumes I. and Le GalesP. (2009[2007]) Gli strumenti per governare, Bruno Monda-dori Milano.

Lederman J. (2019) “The People’s Plan? Participation and Post-Politics in Flint’s Master Planning Process”, Critical Sociology, 45(1). 85–101.

Lichterman P. (2005), Elusive Togetherness: Church Groups Trying to Bridge America’s Divisions, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Luhtakallio E. (2012), Practicing Democracy. Local Activism and Politics in France and Finland, London: Palgrave.

Mathews D. (2001) “Can public life be regenerated?”In Flynn P. and Hodgkinson V. A. Measuring the impact of the nonprofit sector, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.

Melucci A. (1997), Challenging Codes. Collective Action in the Information Age, Cam-bridge: University Press.

Mikkelsen N. (2013) “An Analysis of social meanings in conflict in nonprofit organiza-tions” in Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly 42(5): 923-941.

Moini G. (2012), Teoria critica della partecipazione, Milano: Franco Angeli.

Montanari M. (a cura di), 1997, Antonio Gramsci. Pensare la democrazia. Antologia dai ‘Quaderni del carcere’, Einaudi, Torino.

Moro G. (2014), Contro il non profit, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Mouffe C. (2007[2005]), Sul politico. Democrazia e rappresentazione dei conflitti, Mila-no: Bruno Mondadori.

Pelizzoni L. ed. (2011), Conflitti ambientali. Esperti, politica, istituzioni nelle controversie ambientali, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Pinson G. (2009) “Il progetto come strumento d’azione pubblica urbana” in Lascoumes I. and Le Gales P (cit).

Piselli F. and Ramella F. (2008), Patti sociali per lo sviluppo loacle, Roma: Donzelli.

Polizzi E. (2018), Costruire il Welfare dal basso, Milano: Mimesis.

Raposova I. (2018) “We can’t just put any belly-dancer into the program’: cultural activism as boundary work inthe city of Bratislava”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Romano O. (2017) “The impolitic narrative of grassroots movements against neo-liberal de-politicization”, Partecipazione e Conflitto 10(2): 493-516.

Rosanvallon P. (2006), Controdemocrazia. La politica nell’era della sfiducia, Roma: Ca-stelvecchi.

Ruzza C. (2014) “The ideology of New Public Managment, Association Representation and the Global Financial Crisis”, in Partecipazione e Conflitto 7(3): 490-508.

Salamon L., Sokolowski W. and List R. (2003) Global Civil Society: An Overview, Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, Baltimore: Institute for Policy Studies. ttp://www.jhu.edu@˜ccss.

Sampson R., Mc Adam D., Macindoe H., Weffer S. (2005) “Civil society reconsidered: the durable nature and community structure of collective civic action”, American Journal of Sociology, 111(3), 673-714.

Skocpol T. (2003), Diminished democracy: from membership to management in Ameri-can civic life, N. Okla: University of Oklahoma press.

Swyngedouw E. (2011) “Interrogating post-democratization: reclaiming egalitarian po-litical spaces”, Political Geography, 30: 370-380.

Swyngedouw E. (2018) “Insurgent Citizens and the Spectral Return of the Political in the Post-Democratic City” City & Society 30(2): 1-7.

Thévenot L. (2007) “The plurality of cognitive formats and engagements. Moving be-tween the familiar and the public”, European Journal of Social Theory 10(3): 409–423.

Ugolini M. and Galizioli C. (2013) “Il canale Villoresi come occasione di riqualificazione e riconnessione degli spazi aperti pubblici urbani” in Lambertini A., Metta A., Olivetti M., Città Pubblica/Paesaggi comuni. Materiali per il progetto degli spazi aperti dei quartieri ERP, Gangemi Editore, Milano.

Vitale T. (2007), In nome di chi? Partecipazione e rappresentanza nelle mobilitazioni locali, Milano: Franco Angeli.

Wood M., Flinders M. (2014) “Rethinking Depoliticization: beyond the governmental”, Policy & Politics 42(2): 151-170.

Wuthnow R. (1998), Loose Connections: Joining Together in Americas Fragmented Communities, Harvard: Harvard University Press.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.